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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

New Opine Season column, Brave New Voices, new music from friends, assorted links

SO MUCH STUFF I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU:

1. Help support the Minnesota Brave New Voices team

I have the honor of coaching the MN team this year, 6 (officially, but it's really more like 9) absolutely brilliant teen poets. Seriously, they're incredible. We're working on some more events to showcase their talent before we leave for BNV in August, but in the meantime, you can help us all to Chicago by donating here.

2. My New Opine Season Column on BURNOUT:

My Opine Season column this week is about BURNOUT, and strategies to avoid it for activists, artists, educators and anyone. If you have a thought, leave a comment!

3. New Music from See More Perspective:FOOD FOR THAW by SEE MORE PERSPECTIVESee More Perspective is criminally underrated, and this is the third in his series of seasonal EPs. It's available now for pay-what-you-want. All three so far have contained some absolute gems. "Dandelions" is my favorite on this one. Such good songwriting.

4. New Poem from Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria:

Rodrigo always has something good to say, and he returns with a new poem about fatherhood and "dispelling the myth of the absent Latino father." He writes more about this piece and this subject here.

5. Ring Ring Poetry debuts, includes one of my pieces
Local poet Cole Sarar has been working on this project for a while; basically, you use a phone to call in to listen to poems about different places in the Twin Cities. It's kind of a virtual tour, exploring place, identity and more. My piece "It Is Cold Here, But It Is Also Hot" is included. Here's the link.

6. Ryan "Bugs" Virden-Williams: "On Fried Chicken and Active Whiteness"
Ryan doesn't pull any punches when he talks about race, racism and whiteness. This piece examines the recent Sergio Garcia/Tiger Woods controversy, and frames whiteness not just as a state of being but as an active force on the world.

7. A Conversation on Appreciation, Appropriation and Urban Outfitters
Lauren Van Schepen over at MPLSzine sits down with Lolla Mohammed Nur and Sasha Houston Brown to talk about UA's history of appropriation and how people can fight back. Read the whole interview here.

8. A GoFundMe campaign from the Brown Queer & Trans Empowerment CollectiveThe BQullecTivE is a new organization "for Queer and Trans* identified people of color based in the Twin Cities." They're trying to bring artist B.Steady to town for Pride, and they're all very cool people who deserve our support. You can pitch in here.

9. Ty Moore for MPLS City Council
Will post more about this later, but for now, be sure to check out activist Ty Moore's city council campaign. He's a radical, grassroots organizer, active in many struggles, and I think his perspective is valuable and important.

There's always so much happening in this community. I know I'm missing some others, but I hope you'll take a second to check some of this stuff out. For more frequent updates, follow me on Twitter.